


Earthbound

by Hiver_Frost_Elf



Series: Coldwave's Battle Baby [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, F/M, I hate writing Cisco's family, Kissing, they're the freakin' worst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 11:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15907767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hiver_Frost_Elf/pseuds/Hiver_Frost_Elf
Summary: Another day, another bouquet for Golden Glider: the goddess of earth.  They were lovely flowers, but she had other interests.  She wasn’t a one-trick goddess!“Oh? What’s this?” Golden Glider marveled at the wavy stone that appeared along with that day’s offerings.  She held it between her fingers. “Well, aren’t you pretty???  Who sent you to me?”Golden Glider over the balcony and found a cute little mortal sifting through more rocks to find more colorful ones.  He’d add the ones he liked to a pile.“Good eye!” Golden Glider smiled when he found a nearly all-white one.  It deflated into a frown when an older boy kicked over the pile.Furious, Golden Glider threw her own stone at the bully.  He cried for his mother, predictably.Golden Glider gasped when the bully pinned the attack on the younger one—and his parents believed him!?Nearby roses grew thornier as Golden Glider crushed the balcony railing.





	Earthbound

**Author's Note:**

> Spanish and insult help from <3 <3 Soph and Klep <3 <3 and an extra nod to Soph for inventing the love of money symbol: <$ aka Lisa's symbol.
> 
> I'm also proud of this title.
> 
> the [ring](https://www.angara.com/p/round-amethyst-and-diamond-crossover-ring-sr0256amd?stone_grade=aaaa&stone_size=2mm&metal_type=rose+gold&metal_karat=14k&cid=ps-gpla-adg=53377542236-kwd=-mt=-cmp=1317756187-pla-SR0256AMD-RG-AAAA-2&resetChannel=true&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImb3ouNui3QIVkluGCh1SJwCtEAQYASABEgKsDPD_BwE)

Cisco sniffled on his bed.  He didn’t even get to take his rocks home!  His parents believed Dante over him as usual and grounded Cisco once they dragged him home.  There wasn’t a point crying into his pillow; nobody would care even if they heard him…

Cisco sniffled and heard a shimmering sound outside.  He blinked away his tears and opened his window to find his rocks in a nest of golden roses.

He gasped and brought it in, hiding it under his bed so Dante wouldn’t find it.  He didn’t want Dante taking his offerings for Golden Glider.  He had a decent shot at an apprenticeship with the town blacksmith, so praying to her had to be good as a metalworking hopeful!

Cisco hid the rocks in his pockets and snuck away from his family to get to Golden Glider’s alter at the temple.  They prayed to Heatwave for a hearth that never warmed him, loyalty that imprisoned him, whatever.  Cisco had bigger plans!

“Please help me be a good blacksmith, please help me be a good blacksmith, please help me be a good blacksmith!” Cisco prayed on his knees at her alter.  He tried to put the rocks in the offering plate as quickly as possible to get back before anybody noticed he was missing—the only time they ever noticed him.

“You’re supposed to give flowers, rocks-for-brains,” Dante pushed him _almost_ into the alter.  Oh, gods, if the alter was busted with Cisco nearby! “She’s the earth goddess, not the rock goddess.”

“Rocks come from the earth, pendejo!”

“Francisco!!!”

Dante smirked—which of course, their parents didn’t see cuz Dante couldn’t do anything wrong—while Cisco flinched upon their approach.

* * *

“You’re giving her swords now, pebble dick???” Dante scoffed as the brothers made their way to the temple.

“I make swords with metal, metal comes from the earth, so… yeah!” he was sick of explaining it to him over and over again, but ignoring Dante just riled him up to cause more trouble for Cisco.

If Golden Glider’s brother was anything like Cisco’s brother, she’d need all the weapons she could get.

“Dante!”

The older teen tripped Cisco face-first.  The sword was in its sheath, but the hilt and Cisco’s clothes were muddy.  Their mother wouldn’t wash them again this week…

“Dante!!!”

“Last one to the temple is a pebble dick!” Dante was already so far ahead, not a peddle of his bouquet out of place.  He was courting Melinda now that she’d been convinced that Cisco was going to become a priest.

A priest? Really???  Dante’s lies were just sad now, which made it sting even worse when people kept believing him.

He wiped off the sheath and hilt as best he could, but they were still far from pristine.  It was still sharp though, so he hoped it’d still be useful to Golden Glider.

* * *

“Ooooh…” Golden Glider waved her nifty new sword around.  The blade was light and cut through the air marvelously.  The hilt and sheath had arrived muddy, but a dip in her spring cleaned them right up!

It was from the rock priest! Cisco!

…Why was her blacksmith covered in mud?

Golden Glider simmered when she saw that not-brother of his.  If anyone was behind this, it was him!  Golden Glider had learned that punishing Damn Tease or whatever his name was only led to Cisco getting punished, so instead, she flicked a wave of spring water onto Cisco as he walked back home.

Cisco was confused when he wasn’t soaked, just refreshed and as pristine as his sword.

She’d check in on him from time to time.  Somebody needed to tend to him—his not-family certainly wasn’t!  She’d flick more spring water onto him when he was caked in sweat at the workshop.  She kept flowers blooming all year ‘round around his own.  She’d form the finest metals in the palm of her hand then toss them into his backyard as meteors.

* * *

A ring signaled the arrival of someone at the Golden Anvil.  He braced himself in case it was Dante coming to beg for money again…

“Lisa!” Cisco smiled as he put his tools away for the evening once he spotted the cloaked lady. “Your commission’s ready; I’ll bring it right down!”

Cisco popped upstairs to grab it.  He stored the commissions in his home since there wasn’t much storage space between the stock, his supplies, and tools.

He carefully went down the stairs step by step, not wanting to trip.  He had a chance to not be _the clumsy one_ to somebody, and he wasn’t going to blow it!  Dante could be around any corner.

“It came out like a dream!  I can’t wait t—hey!” Cisco tensed up when he came back to his offering in the lady’s hands. “That one’s not for you! Ma’am.”

“Yes, it is, cutie,” she smiled as she threw off her hood.

Cisco stumbled back, blinded by the golden aura around her.  Brown locks became blond, and her cloak became a dress that shined like the dawn and led into ribbons that caught him before he fell on his ass.  They even set the other sword aside.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, my rock priest,” her smile healed his aches and exorcised the splinter in his toe.

He mouthed _rock priest_ before he realized _his goddess_ had commanded her ribbons to catch him.

She drew closer to him, “Do you know why I’m here?”

“Uh, uh,” gods, he was a fuckin’ loser.  He gulped. “For a sword?”

“I’m here for you, Cisco.  I’d like to make you immortal, and for you to live with me—with my family!”

“…Your family?” Cisco couldn’t process the clusterfuck of words, so he homed in on the scariest one. “Your family would want someone like me???”

“I want someone exactly like you: funny, as sharp as your swords, and cute to boot!” she clasped his hands. “Let me show you what a real family is like!”

“The—my shop…”

“Every blacksmith will lust after the workshop I’ve built for you!” she cupped his cheek. “Only the finest for my blacksmith.  C’mon! Let me show you—and if you don’t like it,” she said it like someone who hoped he’d love it, “I’ll bring you back…”

“You won’t make me stay?”

“I would never!”

Cisco flinched.  She frowned and squeezed his hands three times.

“I love you, and love doesn’t force.”

“How—how can you say that???  You just met me!”

Nobody loved him.  His customers and clients liked him, but nobody loved him.

“You gave me so many wonderful things—made me so many wonderful things—without even daring to hope you’d get to meet me.”

“I… yeah…” he blinked back tears.  His goddess loved him back.  His goddess loved him back!  Oh gods, his goddess loved him back!!!

She held out her hand.

He took it.

Golden Glider’s domain was granite and roses strung about like garlands.  The spring in the middle of the space looked like it’d be fun to wade in; there was even a shallow section for soaking feet, presumably.

“Actually, that’s for my nephew.”

“You have a nephew?”

“Mm-hm. No mortals worship him yet, but we do—me and his fathers,” she clasped his hand, leading him towards a white doorway between columns topped with leaves. “The pièce de résistance is this way!”

“…Ho-lyyy shit!”

The tools never dulled, the veins never dried, and its smelter and forge never gave him heatstroke.  His fingers itched as his mind flooded with ideas.  Golden Glider smiled as he worked.

When he was ready for a break, she took him to an attached gallery that displayed all of his offerings to her.  Everything from the rocks to the weaponry and even the ring Dante had passed onto him as a joke, expecting nobody to ever accept such a thing from his dorky hermanito.  Cisco didn’t think anybody would either, so he figured the goddess of earth would like the crisscrossing rose gold bands embedded with amethysts.

She slipped it on his finger.  It automatically resized into a snug fit.  Wearing it felt like he was finally tucked safely in a harbor after sailing all his life.

“Now,” she entwined her fingers in his, “have you thought of a name?”

“I already have one,” he smiled, basking in the warmth of her touch, playing with the hem of his shirt.

“Gods have many names, cutie.”

“I-I’m not a _god_ ; gods have worshippers.”

“Oh, I plan on worshiping you alright…” Golden Glider pressed her lips against his: a slow embrace of lips as she brought her other hand to his hair.  Cisco’s eyes flew open at new, yet not unpleasant sensations.  They felt like the warmth of a hearth.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for taking time to read this; enjoy what you do here and everywhere!


End file.
